ALBUMS ON PRESALE TODAY! BUY THE ALBUMS HERE! Volume One: Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/pl/album/j-s-bach-complete-keyboard-works-vol-1-five-early-suites/1742017750 Amazon Music: https://amazon.com/music/player/albums/B0D2384W2F?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_RKDX0CTSrSQOjYLoHcLjwnaal Volume Two: Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/jp/album/j-s-bach-complete-keyboard-works-vol-2-original-compositions/1742025499Amazon Music:...

Thanks for all your support during The Bach Store! If you’re in NYC on Friday, come to Le Poisson Rouge at 158 Bleecker Street at 7pm. Be sure to mark your calendars: April 24th, 2024, my new albums will be on PRE-sale. It marks the beginning of my most ambitious project to date: a very thorough, if possible, ‘complete’ set of the keyboard works of Bach. I will certainly send another reminder as the date approaches. And now for a brief journey into Bach around this date in 1724: today’s...

You read correctly: The Bach Store is back. In Erfurt, Thuringia, the state from where the Bachs hail. I will play for five hours, March 14-28, 12.00-18.00 GMT +1 (7AM-1PM EST.) You can (hopefully) stream the whole run on my youtube. Subscribe HERE. Or go to: www.youtube.com/@wtfbach Here is the latest video I mentioned in the podcast. Bach Store Merchandise is available on request. Send an email to bach (at) wtfbach (dot com) — Meanwhile, the music in today’s episode comes from the...

This week I’ll be performing some flute chamber music in Santa Barbara, California. I realize I’ve never specifically mentioned Bach’s wonderful flute repertoire on this podcast. We tackle here what I find is the most complex composition in the repertoire: the first movement of the b minor sonata, BWV 1030. Pieces heard: BWV 1030.1 Source P. 1008, early version, harpsichord part. BWV 1030.2 The later version, arranged as a flute sonata. Articles: Contentious writing on flute vs....

This is the final episode introducing Bach’s cantata cycle of 1724. In the first four cantatas of the cycle, we heard how Bach used Lutheran hymnal melodies as cantus firmi in different voice parts in each opening movement (sopranos, followed by altos, followed by tenors, followed by basses.) Here, the next two cantatas see less predictable treatments of the old melodies. Bach evidently valued these two cantatas, as later in life he arranged single movements from both BWV 10 and BWV 93 into...

Last episode we introduced Bach’s second cantata cycle from 1724. We saw in the first cantatas of the cycle, Bach used a church melody as the cantus firmus first in the sopranos, then the altos. This episode we will explore the next two cantatas where Bach sets the cantus firmus in the tenors in BWV 7, and the basses in BWV 135. About the melody you may know as “O Sacred Head Surrounded” Pieces heard: BWV 7, Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam (Full Performance) BWV 135, Ach Herr, mich...

Peter Schickele was one of my idols. He died on Tuesday, January 16. His creation, P.D.Q. Bach, helped bring much needed self-effacing humor to the world of classical music. Links below to help you get into his (and Victor Borge’s— another giant of classical music parody—) life and work: Peter Schickele’s Obituary, NY Times Beethoven’s 5th announced as a baseball game (a classic!) The Short-Tempered Clavier Report from Hoople (full album- the Beethoven sketch is included) The Definitive...

In this episode we delve into Bach’s second cantata cycle begun in 1724. The first two cantatas are briefly covered, (with two further cantatas to follow next episode) as well as the connection between the Lutheran church melodies and the significance of the year Bach began this ambitious project. Pieces heard: BWV 20, O Ewigkeit, du Donnerwort (Click here to see the live video) BWV 2, Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein BWV 684, Chirst unser Herr zum Jordan Kamm Support...

I rarely just play on this podcast, but that’s how I’d like to package this little present for my listeners. Rather than spending days researching and writing, today I will play four fugues and introduce them only briefly. It’s some twenty minutes of music I hope you can enjoy during your holidays. The quote I read to introduce this short concert is by Mortimer J. Adler. Bach wrote this music before 1717 (at the latest.) These are fugues whose themes originated in the work of other...

In today’s episode we have a look at one of Bach’s Arnstadt masterpieces, the fugue in c minor BWV 574 on a theme by Giovanni Maria Bononcini (The composers Giovanni Bononcini and Antonio Maria Bononcini were his sons.) According to the Neue Bach Ausgabe, this fugue is the first double fugue in history. Here is a picture of the title page in his brother’s hand with the erroneous attribution to Legrenzi: You can download the music to the fugue here. (The MIDI version I created at the end of...

Firstly, here is the image of what’s in question: If you’ve ever wondered what all the ‘squiggles’ are about over certain notes in sheet music, this episode will you give you a good idea. Here is the ‘Applicatio,’ the little piece which would have shown Bach’s son (and other future students) how to apply these ornaments- notice the fingering and the ‘J.N.J.’: Just a quick episode today! Stay tuned for more writings and longer episodes soon. Support...

How did Bach understand the concept of Phi? 1.618…? Here are a few examples where Bach highlights the “Golden Section” in a piece through either a fugal technique, a shift in musical language, or something else. Send us your most remarkable golden section moments! For the first episode where I mentioned the golden section and Bach, click here. Pieces covered: Fugue in C major, BWV 846 Invention in C major, BWV 770 Allegro from Sonata in a minor, BWV 1003 Confiteor and Et Expecto from Mass in...

In this episode I delve into two very diverse chorale preludes: one from the so-called, “Great 18” and one from the individually transmitted. Here is a link to Bach’s own autograph of the Leipzig chorales. Beautiful handwriting! Marie-Claire Alain’s recording of BWV 655 (completely different to Koopman’s) The “Organ Sonatas” I recorded with LH/RH hard panning On Spotify on Apple Music P.S. This is the first episode released on the new substack website- please shout if you experience...

-- I AM STARTING A SUBSTACK SOON SO JOIN THE FUN: WTFBACH.SUBSTACK.COM -- Thanks for listening! In this episode we discuss the history of the Chorale- how it became called 'Chorale' and how it factors into Bach's music. Pieces featured: BWV 691 and BWV 93 (Chorale) at the same time BWV 651 BWV 682 Performers were: Michel Chapuis, Kay Johannsen -- Here are the links to the cantata cycles mentioned at the end, thank you, Tucker! From the profile you can access different ensembles'...

Though this episode starts with quite the extended introduction, this is in fact EPISODE THREE In a four-part study into the 14 additional canons on the back of the Goldbergs, BWV1087. Here in this video, we dismiss a popular Bach video, and examine which videos are in fact Möbius strips.  Here is the disproven crab canon video. Here are two studies which don't quite go far enough: One. I love this channel, don't get me wrong- they just didn't quite examine the consequences of chromatic...

Finally! The influential Joshua Rifkin guests on the WTF Bach Podcast.  Rifkin made Bach fame with his groundbreaking (and controversial!) theory that Bach’s vocal works (and other 17th & 18th century) composers’ works were sung with only one singer per part. He recorded the b minor mass, several cantatas, and other Bach works in this format.  We spoke for almost three hours about ragtime, the Beatles, PDQ Bach (my distant uncle), even crossword puzzles, coffee and meditation. For this...

Q: What if those really slow interpretations of the cello suites from the 30s and 50s could be sped up? A: Exactly.   https://www.jsbachcellosuites.com - check out this website! It's a great source on the history of the recordings of these pieces.   Thanks for all your feedback, donations, ideas, everything. Please follow @wtfbach on instagram for (almost) daily Bach content.   We thank YOU for supporting...

Thanks for supporting us through 50 episodes!  What makes Bach, BACH?! As a special celebration, the 50th episode of The WTF Bach Podcast is a live lecture presented by Tonebase. The topic is the ever looming one: why is Bach's importance so great? Studying the ideas behind a few of his instrumental collections, we see that Bach's ideas are always expanding outward, perhaps lending to his all-pervasive influence.  Learn more about Tonebase.   Support...

EPISODE TWO: On the back of his own personal copy of the 'Goldberg Variations', Bach notated an additional fourteen canons. These were discovered only as late as 1974(!) and are among the most interesting compositional exercises we know from the composer.  From eight bass notes (the first 8 notes of the 'Goldberg' Aria- the structure in a sense,) Bach creates, yes, fourteen other canons. In this episode, we discuss engraving and canons 5-9. Here is what they look like as seen on the back of...

I was recently asked to explain chromaticism, so I thought I'd give it a try here. Bach's fugue based on a theme by Tomaso Albinoni in B minor, BWVs 951, and 951a: the subject itself contains a chromatic descent (B, A#, A, G#, G, F#) and though Albinoni himself wrote it, it was Bach who brought the ideas behind such chromaticism to the next level.  HERE is the recording which I was not able to credit. If you know whose recording this is, please write me, I'll fix it! and HERE is the version...

On the back of his own personal copy of the 'Goldberg Variations', Bach notated an additional fourteen canons. These were discovered only as late as 1974(!) and are among the most interesting compositional exercises we know from the composer.  From eight bass notes (the first 8 notes of the 'Goldberg' Aria- the structure in a sense,) Bach creates, yes, fourteen other canons. In this episode, we introduce the history, the idea behind the canons and the first four canons. Here is what they look...

This episode was inspired by my recent discovery and purchase of an Encyclopedia Britannica. It's a fascinating collection of knowledge and I highly recommend finding some volumes and reading them. This is the Bach article appearing in the EB from as early as 1926 even until the 1960s, written by D.F. Tovey.  We also listen to fugue BWV 959, very early, very wild, very W.T.F. in unequal temperament.  More episodes on the way! Spread the love! -- LINKS: The text of the Borges story I...

More than simply, “in tune” or “out of tune” a temperament is a solution to the ancient problem of creating a circle out of a spiral. By the time Bach had his shake at this problem, the musical world had advanced far enough, setting the stage for his great mind to create a well-tempered solution that allowed him to compose in all 24 keys. Not all keys sound the same in the vast majority of temperaments, in fact, in only our modern equal-tempered one do we find all keys equal. Does our...

How much more famous can music be than that one Prelude in C? The Prelude BWV 846, the first prelude in the Well-Tempered Clavier, is heard everywhere, but why? How? What purpose could such a piece have served in Bach's day? We discuss two early, shorter versions of the prelude, and one erroneous version with an inauthentic bar (the 'Schwenke measure' - be on the look out if your copy has 36 bars and not 35!) Answering, "How has this prelude influenced musicians even today?" we explore modern...